Chris Barnwell was held out of Savannah Christian football practice Monday, working on his starts on the sidelines while his teammates went though contact drills.

The break was well-deserved - and needed.

As the fullback in the Red Raiders' triple-option offense, Barnwell was a little bruised and banged up. Savannah Christian coach Donald Chumley wanted to make sure he was ready for Friday's second-round playoff game against Bleckley County at Garden City Stadium.

The 5-foot-9, 165-pounder has been a pleasant surprise this season, rushing for 1,103 yards and 12 touchdowns on 191 carries to help lead the Raiders to a 9-2 record.

Even more impressive, Barnwell is just a freshman who started the season as a backup halfback.

Those plans changed, however, as a result of injuries. Sophomore Brandon Sumner began the season as the starter at fullback, but injured his knee in the second game and was out for three weeks.

Sophomores David Butler and Travis Thomas shared duties for two games with Thomas starting. But Barnwell took over as the starter in the fourth game against McIntosh County Academy. He rushed for just 35 yards on 16 carries in a hard-fought 13-9 loss to the Buccaneers, but since then he's rushed for 975 yards on 183 carries in only eight games, averaging 121.8 yards a game.

"We would love to have a big, bruising fullback who can move the pile, but you play with what you're dealt,'' Chumley said. "(Barnwell) got the opportunity to play because of injuries and he's never lost the position. Sometimes opportunity makes coaches look real smart.''

Barnwell said he was "really surprised" when Chumley told him he was going to move from halfback to fullback.

"I started getting nervous,'' he said. "I had never played fullback before. I was always a halfback in middle school.''

Chumley said he decided on the switch instead of leaving Butler and Thomas at fullback because they were used to playing halfback and "it would be like robbing Peter to pay Paul. We wanted to keep the experienced guys we had and put a guy in there who could hopefully learn the position.''

Barnwell has proven to be a fast learner. He's rushed for 100 or more yards five times since changing positions, with a high of 215 yards on 22 carries Oct. 27 against Appling County.

Aside from MCA, the only two times he failed to reach the century mark was when he didn't play in the second half in blowout victories over Long County and Pierce County, finishing with 82 and 84 yards.

Twice he's scored three touchdowns in a game, including last Friday's 28-21 victory over Swainsboro in the first round of the playoffs when he scored on runs of 37, 4 and 4 yards.

At first, Barnwell said he didn't like playing fullback "but I love it now. When I go against other teams the linebackers are always bigger than me and sometimes I can over them. They underestimate me because of my size.''

"We all knew what he could do it, he just had to get the chance,'' DeMasi said. "He's given us a breakaway player at fullback. That's what we need in our offense - someone to get us good yards and sometimes make big plays.''

Despite his size, Chadwick said Barnwell has the perfect mentality to play fullback.

"In our offense, the fullback has to be a guy who's a hard worker who can get hit every play, get up and give the same effort,'' Chadwick said.

"He's one of those kinds of kids. He's going to give you the same effort every time every day, no matter what the weather or how he's feeling.''

Chumley said Barnwell's performance has been "amazing" considering the beating he takes.

"I think the sky's the limit with him. Barring injury, in his four years, he could be as good as there has been to come out of this area in a long time.''